Accessibility compliance can be a scary and intangible topic if you have never tackled the issue that crop up associated to it before. In this presentation we’ll attempt to demystify it a bit in general as well as show practical application. Christian Johansen will frame the blockers to accessibility and what the university is doing about them. Then Brad Fisher will show how he’s been able to improve the accessibility in a theme layer in his existing portfolio of themes. Lastly Bryan Ollendyke will cover some of the more proactive methods available to Drupal Site building in order to help ensure that content created as accessible going forward.

Modern websites are a collection of different pieces of content. Each type of content has its own respective attributes and people responsible for updating information on the site. This session focuses on how to build different types of content into a site and how to set up workflow for content approvals. This will touch on Drupal concepts like content types, users/groups/permissions, and workflow. We will use Drupal modules such as CCK, Profile, and Workbench. Presented by Adam Bergstein.

Taxonomy, aside from being a technical-sounding science word most of us first heard in middle school, is also a very useful and often barely-used part of the Drupal ecosystem. In this session we will cover everything from the basics of what Taxonomy is and how to use it for simple classification and grouping of content - to more advanced uses such as creating a Taxonomy-based site architecture. Presented by Chris Komlenic.

Views is the most downloaded module for good reason; it is almost impossible build a Drupal site without it. This session will cover uses of Views, the Views User Interface, and how to create basic (and perhaps advanced) Taxonomy based Views in Drupal 7. Presented by Eric Aitala.

Ever wanted to replicate Content Types, Views and other site settings you had to manually configure on other sites? In this session you’ll learn how to take portions of your configuration and Drupal site and share it with others via the Features module. Also discussed will be Kit Compliancy and how you can reuse and remix portions of other peoples features based Drupal sites. Presented by Bryan Ollendyke.

Developer Day (Tuesday July 31) Cybertorium

Welcome to developer day. We’ll briefly talk about what we’re going to be doing as well as some of the modules already contributed and worked on in the community by members of the penn state community. Drupal 8 and where drupal is headed will also be covered to help frame why we are discussing the topics we are.

If you think Drupal is only a content management system, come learn about how Drupal can be used as a development framework. During this presentation, we will present concepts on the APIs found in Drupal 7 such as the Form API, Database API, and Entity/Field APIs. These APIs introduce new concepts that will carry over to Drupal 8 and beyond. Lastly, we will show a soup-to-nuts code-centric example of how to use all of the APIs. Of note, we will not be reviewing the existing hook architecture. Presented by Adam Bergstein and Chris Komlenic.

Drupal presents site builders with a wide array of functionality that can be used to create robust websites. But, how secure is your website? With deadlines and tightening of budgets, security often gets overlooked. This presentation provides some practical tips and helpful reminders to ensure your Drupal site is secure. Slides courtesy of Justin Klein Keane of the University of Pennsylvania. Presented by Adam Bergstein.

Learn best practices for development as well as disaster recovery and how to increase transparency through the Features module. Features can help drastically reduce stress and time involved in migrating from one environment to another as well as provide a layer of transparency to your work. We’ll also discuss how Features can be extended / safely overridden in distributions for more sustainable development. Presented by Bryan Ollendyke.

Harness the power of the Omega 7.3 base theme. Examine how the Omega Tools module allows you to create a sub-theme using only the UI, and explore the Omega Zone and Region Configuration page. Learn the different CSS files that an omega sub-theme provides you, and how to stack them to leverage breakpoints for different screen sizes. Presented by Brad Fisher.